Barber’s penalty drew scrutiny from Garrett, Jones

IRVING – Marion Barber’s strong performance Saturday night was marred by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty he drew when he ripped off his helmet after running for a 24-yard touchdown late in the third quarter that pulled the Cowboys within 21-20.

The 15-yard penalty was marked off on the kickoff. Even though the Cardinals wound up punting the ball back to the Cowboys, interim coach Jason Garrett and owner Jerry Jones were disappointed by Barber’s undisciplined move.

“Disappointing, disappointing,” Garrett said. “Marion got a chance to come back and play in the game coming off an injury, and I thought he played well. He ran well. Obviously, that was a big play in the game, the long touchdown run he had. He’s an emotional guy and sometimes emotions get the best of players. That’s unfortuante. We talk about the importance of maintaining your poise and your composure in that situation and he knows better.

“It’s not going to happen again.”

The penalty harkened back to earlier this season when the Cowboys were hurt by touchdown celebration penalties against Marc Colombo and Sam Hurd.

“The bad part is that we made a lot of mistakes, and those mistakes beat you,” Jones said after Saturday night’s game. “Barber taking his helmet off, a veteran pulling his helmet off. He was excited about it, I understand. But you lose games doing that.”

Barber finished with 58 yards on eight carries in his first game after missing three contests with a calf injury.